I'm looking for a new website hosting service

[Ellis Vener]

I've narrowed it to two chooices: PhotoDeck and squareSpace.
I am looking for

1.) portfolio hosting: Criteria Good looking, flexible templates, Good intelligent DAM: SEO, backlinks, Ai savvy, etc.

2.) Video as well as stills

2.) secure, password protected non-public client galleries and delivery to clients

3.) e-commerce, print, etc. fulfillment.

4.) Ability to license

4.) blog support


I've been using Photodeck , https://www.photodeck.com/ , behind the scenes for the past year and I'm pretty happy with it, but I've heard so many ads for SquareSpace I think I should look into it as well. Does anyone have any experience with it for their photography business

--
Ellis Vener
To see my work, please visit http://www.ellisvener.com
I am on Instagram @EllisVenerStudio
If you like my question or response, please give a thumbs up. My ego needs the strokes.

 

[BAK]

Between the two, I'd pick Square Space because it appears to value photographers as clients. It sponsors Chelsea and Tony Northrup, Jarad Polin, and other photographers, who seem to have been happy clients for years before being beneficiaries of Square Space's advertising.

And if you see SS promotions on Tony and Chelsea's web sites, and on Jarod Polin's sites, there are discounts to be be had.
BAK

 

[RobertE]

Hi Ellis,

TLDR: Format.com, now owned by Zenfolio.

If Format allowed me to import 25 years of blog posts like Squarespace can, I'd definitely go with Format. Til then, I'm still using Wordpress and Wetransfer for client deliverables.

Squarespace

We're a similar vintage, (photo.net days when the web was young), and every year I hope to simplify my web presence. Squarespace always looks good, I've rebuilt my website on it and ran it parallel to my main Wordpress site for a year. However testing their support left me wanting. If it's important, the SEO tools on Squarespace feel out of date. My site has been up since 1998 so has good traction and SEO is important. When I'm ready to retire, which means when my commercial clients sack me, I'll move my site and blog to Squarespace.

Wordpress

WP is OK if you have a good host and keep it simple with minimum plugins. I rate "good" in terms of quality of support and response time. I'm on Dreamhost, while Kinsta and Bluehost are also suppose to be good. Delivering jobs via Wordpress is doable but a poor client experience, IMHO.

Wetransfer

For commercial clients Wetransfer offers the least friction. Click a link, accept T&Cs, and download. Clients can also send large files to me, similar to Hightail. The downside is Wetransfer was recently acquired by Bending Spoons who tend to jack up prices and reduce features.

If you want nice web galleries, before Wetransfer I used CloudSpot.

 

[Peter Brentlinger]

https://www.photofolio.com/

Highly recommend.

 

[Thomas Hegna]

2.) Video as well as stills

I would never upload video directly to a website. Use Vimeo or YouTube, then build it into your website.

I have never used squarespace but I guess it automatically downsizes your images to a webfriendly size.

 

[Marceppy]

Im curious and also looking at creating a new website for hosting images.

Has anyone had experience with Flickr, which is free for 1000 or less images, offers public pages, albums, and private groups. Their Pro Plan is about $80/yr. One problem with the latter I found, viewers have to be a Flickr member to view a private group and they have to be invited. Some photo editors may not be Flickr members. I understand anyone can look at Albums.

Adobe Portfolio - free if you have a creative cloud plan. But Im not sure of the in's and out's for this program.

I am curious and would appreciate feedback from anyone on these two, advantages or disadvantages.

Thanks

Marc

 

[Gato Amarillo]

You can find plenty of comments on Flickr on these forums -- many of them complaints. Check the Open Talk forum for a start.

The Adobe sites seemed very limited to me when I checked. I wanted more room to grow.

BTW, I strongly suggest you register your domain name / web address separately from your website. You can register at someplace like GoDaddy, then point the addy to wherever you host your site, I registered my domains back around 1995, since then I've had my site on four different hosts -- one shut down, one didn't grow fast enough, one didn't offer good mobile compatibility -- but have kept the same addresses. It takes only a few minutes to switch.

My current site is on SmugMug. I wanted something simple to set up that I could be confident would work well for viewers on smart phones. They were the first place I found where I liked the templates and the price was right for me.

Gato

 

[Marceppy]

You can find plenty of comments on Flickr on these forums -- many of them complaints. Check the Open Talk forum for a start.

The Adobe sites seemed very limited to me when I checked. I wanted more room to grow.

BTW, I strongly suggest you register your domain name / web address separately from your website. You can register at someplace like GoDaddy, then point the addy to wherever you host your site, I registered my domains back around 1995, since then I've had my site on four different hosts -- one shut down, one didn't grow fast enough, one didn't offer good mobile compatibility -- but have kept the same addresses. It takes only a few minutes to switch.

My current site is on SmugMug. I wanted something simple to set up that I could be confident would work well for viewers on smart phones. They were the first place I found where I liked the templates and the price was right for me.

Gato

Good information, thanks. It jump started some research for me. Other information from this thread too. Interesting tho, SmugMug owns Flickr but they operate as separate platforms. Adobe is ok but limited was the word on many reviews, people either love it or not. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Marc